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A data scientist who was revealed Sunday as the Facebook whistleblower says that whenever there was a conflict between the public good and what benefited the company, the social media giant would choose its own interests.

Frances Haugen was identified in a 鈥�60 Minutes鈥� interview Sunday as the woman who anonymously filed complaints with federal law enforcement that the company鈥檚 own research shows how it magnifies hate and misinformation.

Ms. Haugen, who worked at Google and Pinterest before joining Facebook in 2019, said she had asked to work in an area of the company that fights misinformation, since she lost a friend to online conspiracy theories.

鈥淔acebook, over and over again, has shown it chooses profit over safety,鈥� she said. Ms. Haugen, who will testify before Congress this week, said she hopes that by coming forward the government will put regulations in place to govern the company鈥檚 activities.

She said Facebook prematurely turned off safeguards designed to thwart misinformation and rabble rousing after Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump last year, alleging that contributed to the deadly Jan. 6 invasion of the U.S. Capitol.

Post-election, the company dissolved a unit on civic integrity where she had been working, which Ms. Haugen said was the moment she realized 鈥淚 don鈥檛 trust that they鈥檙e willing to actually invest what needs to be invested to keep Facebook from being dangerous.鈥�

At issue are algorithms that govern what shows up on users鈥� news feeds, and how they favor hateful content. Ms. Haugen said a 2018 change to the content flow contributed to more divisiveness and ill will in a network ostensibly created to bring people closer together.

Despite the enmity that the new algorithms were feeding, Facebook found that they helped keep people coming back 鈥� a pattern that helped the Menlo Park, California, social media giant sell more of the digital ads that generate most of its advertising.

Facebook鈥檚 annual revenue has more than doubled from $56 billion in 2018 to a projected $119 billion this year, based on the estimates of analysts surveyed by FactSet. Meanwhile, the company鈥檚 market value has soared from $375 billion at the end of 2018 to nearly $1 trillion now.

Even before the full interview came out on Sunday, a top Facebook executive was deriding the whistleblower鈥檚 allegations as 鈥渕isleading.鈥�

鈥淪ocial media has had a big impact on society in recent years, and Facebook is often a place where much of this debate plays out,鈥� Nick Clegg, the company鈥檚 vice president of policy and public affairs wrote to Facebook employees in a memo sent Friday. 鈥淏ut what evidence there is simply does not support the idea that Facebook, or social media more generally, is the primary cause of polarization.鈥�

The 鈥�60 Minutes鈥� interview intensifies the spotlight already glaring on Facebook as lawmakers and regulators around the world scrutinize the social networking鈥檚 immense power to shape opinions and its polarizing effects on society.

The backlash has been intensifying since The Wall Street Journal鈥檚 mid-September publication of an expose that revealed Facebook鈥檚 internal research had concluded the social network鈥檚 attention-seeking algorithms had helped foster political dissent and contributed to mental health and emotional problems among teens, especially girls. After copying thousands of pages of Facebook鈥檚 internal research, Ms. Haugen leaked them to the Journal to provide the foundation for a succession of stories packaged as as the 鈥淔acebook Files.鈥�

Although Facebook asserted the Journal had cherry picked the most damaging information in the internal documents to cast the company in the worst possible light, the revelations prompted an indefinite delay in the rollout of a kids鈥� version of its popular photo- and video-sharing app, Instagram. Facebook currently requires people to be at least 13 years old to open an Instagram account.

Mr. Clegg appeared on CNN鈥檚 鈥淩eliable Sources鈥� Sunday in another pre-emptive attempt to soften the blow of Ms. Haugen鈥檚 interview.

鈥淓ven with the most sophisticated technology, which I believe we deploy, even with the tens of thousands of people that we employ to try and maintain safety and integrity on our platform,鈥� Mr. Clegg told CNN, 鈥渨e鈥檙e never going to be absolutely on top of this 100% of the time.鈥�

He said that鈥檚 because of the 鈥渋nstantaneous and spontaneous form of communication鈥� on Facebook, adding, 鈥淚 think we do more than any reasonable person can expect to.鈥�

By choosing to reveal herself on 鈥�60 Minutes,鈥� Ms. Haugen selected television鈥檚 most popular news program, on an evening its viewership is likely to be inflated because, in many parts of the country, it directly followed an NFL matchup between Green Bay and Pittsburgh.

Ms. Haugen is from Iowa and has a degree in computer engineering and a Master鈥檚 degree in business from Harvard University 鈥� the same school that Facebook founder and leader Mark Zuckerberg attended.

Ms. Haugen, has filed at least eight complaints with U.S. securities regulators alleging Facebook has violated the law by withholding information about the risks posed by its social network, according to 鈥�60 Minutes.鈥� Facebook in turn could take legal action against her if it asserts she stole confidential information from the company.

鈥淣o one at Facebook is malevolent,鈥� Ms. Haugen said during the interview. 鈥淏ut the incentives are misaligned, right? Like, Facebook makes more money when you consume more content. People enjoy engaging with things that elicit an emotional reaction. And the more anger that they get exposed to, the more they interact and the more they consume.鈥�

This story was reported by The Associated Press.